Antique China Cabinet- Part 2, stripping the paint

Lordy is paint stripping exhausting. It is tedious, monotonous, stinky, dirty, and seriously tests your patience!! Not to mention my feet, quads, and knees are KILLING ME! I have to say I really enjoy it though! There’s something rewarding and therapeutic about it. I love peeling way the layers and finding what’s under it and bringing it back to it’s original beauty.
With the exception of Avery's field trip Friday morning, we actually did not have anything planned this weekend, so I took full advantage and got busy on the cabinet.
Since this really isn't a tutorial, I will not give step by steps but will show pictures I took along the way.
I got the drawer all sanded down so the next step was to clean out the carving. It was so full of gunk. Who knows what all was in there. It was nasty! I used the corner of my scraper some, a flat head screw driver, and even got out my dental tools (what? you don't have dental tools laying around?? lol)

Next was the daunting task of stripping the big piece. This is where patience is key! I used Citristrip since it was the safest one I could find. It says it has no smell but it does! A mask (and obviously gloves) was a must! I actually didn't take any pictures during the stripping phase since it was so messy I didn't want to get my camera out. It took 2 full days of 6-8 hours of work but I got it stripped down.

As you can see I didn’t mess with stripping the inside. It was not chipping as bad and I will have to paint it anyways so I will just sand a little and it will be fine.

The turned legs were tough! I didn’t get it perfect but I think what’s left can be sanded off. Using those really rough sponges you get in the kitchen section worked the best since the scraper doesn’t get into the grooves as easily.

The carving on the front bottom was also tough. I used a tooth brush to help get into those curves. The trick was to wait as until the stripper was pretty dry before removing it. If it is too wet, it just gets goopy and smears more than falls off.

 

Here's another close up of the detail carving on the front. I had to scrape out the goop on all of these carvings. This section needs a little help since there is a piece of the laminate missing.

I got some wood putty and filled the missing spot and glued down the corners of veneer that were coming up. They are clamped right now in the garage till tomorrow.

   

This is my favorite glue in the whole world! I use it for everything and I have yet to find something it doesn't work on. I buy it from a basket making website and keep several bottles on hand!

Hoping to start sanding in the evenings this week.  

After stripping it, I don’t think I will be able to stain it as I had hoped. With all of the puttying and veneer and different colors of wood, it just isn’t restoring as well as I had hoped. I will probably end up going with a white since that is the “safest” color and I don’t want to do anything trendy with it; I want it to be a classic piece that will last in our family for many many more years!

Antique China Cabinet- Part 1 stripping off veneer

I was lucky enough to get this beautiful piece of furniture from my grandmother. I believe it belonged to her grandmother. Not entirely sure, but nonetheless, it is OLD! It was sitting in her garage just rotting away and I convinced her to let me take it home to give it some love and make it beautiful again.

Unfortunately, it has been sitting in my garage now for about 6 months waiting on pretty weather to start!
I actually needed to test it for lead paint since it is so old, but luckily it came back negative! I got out there this weekend and started to poke at it and figure out where to begin. I’ve never done a piece this big or that needed this much work. It is going to be a learning piece but I plan to take it very slow and do it right!
I enlisted the husband to help me remove all of the rusted screws and hardware. I do think that he was enjoying himself! ;)

Next, I (we) removed the door, glass, shelves, and drawer. I decided that the first step would be to start scraping off the peeling veneer from the drawer. I started with a flat head screwdriver just to see how much I could pull off easily.

I was so worried that I would loose the beautiful detailing and designs but it seems to actually be carved into the wood beneath, not just the veneer. YAY!!! Here is a close up of the design on the front

I really didn’t get much further with the screwdriver than you see in the picture above, so then I had to figure out what to do to get the glued on veneer with out destroying the drawer front.

I did some quick Googling and read several sites that said using an iron is the best way. So this is how I did it.

**disclaimer: please do not use this as a tutorial. I am learning as I go so if anything, it can be used to get some tips but I am NOT A PROFESSIONAL

Step 1. get your supplies together.

• Iron. One that you are willing to destroy
• rag. old one is best
• bowl with water
• measuring cup with water to fill your iron
• hammer
• paint scrapper

Step 2. Heat your iron and set it to the hottest setting with steam all of the way up

Step 3. wet your rag. doesn’t need to be dripping but very wet

Step 4. lay the wet rag over the veneer that needs to be removed

Step 5. place the hot iron on the rag for about 1 minute and let it steam and heat up the veneer. You are melting the glue here so some pieces my need longer time and others may not need as much time.

{the girls were pretending I was a dragon blowing fire every time the iron steamed! haha}

Step 6. remove the iron and CAREFULLY remove the rag. IT WILL BE HOT! (duh)

Step 7. acting fast while the wood is still hot, use the paint scrapper and hammer to gently pull the veneer away from the wood. Be careful not to gouge the wood! It should pull away much easier now.

Repeat when it becomes hard to peel again.

I was able to finish the drawer this weekend. The rest of what you see will easily sand off. I also plan to put a thin layer of paint stripper on there to remove the red paint and gunk from the carving lines. I had set the girls up to finger paint in the garage with me to keep them entertained while I worked but sure enough, that got out of hand so I had to stop. These days, I am lucky to get 10 minutes to myself to work on something like this so I was pumped!

 

Next, One of the sides of the cabinet is peeling too so I will have to tackle that next chance I get. Then I will be on to stripping the paint. I will update when I can!

New antique heirloom

I mentioned before that I am spending a few days at my grandmother's house this week. I was outside with the kids when I spotted a beautiful piece of furniture sitting in her garage. (Excuse the horrible pics from my phone. They don't do it justice).



I asked her about it and she said it was her grandmother's, so my great great grandmothers. She also said that no one wants it and it has been sitting there for years. I am appalled that this is just sitting outside rotting when it has so much potential! My mom checked with my aunt and she said they both didn't mind if I took it so hopefully I can find a way to get it home one day. Yippee!! I am normally not an antique person but I love family pieces that have a personal history. I really hope I can give it some love and make it beautiful again! Here's a few (really bad) close up shots of the details.

Beautiful turned legs


Looks like it used to be red then painted white.


Wood etchings


The stretcher and details under the hutch.



I want to do some research on what year this was possibly made. Had to of been the late 1800s!
Can't wait to do this refinish job!

Design Delima!

I found this beauitul bed frame for sale for a steal! I love it but it is not what I had originally intended for Norah's room. Do I go with "Exhibit A," the cheap unique steal that I will have to get creative with and figure out how to make it work, or "Exhibit B," the one I had planned around and I know will go perfectly??
Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Repurposed Screen Door

My in-laws were remodeling a lot of their house and getting rid of their doors. When I heard this, I jumped on the chance at getting their screen door. I have seen lots of repurposed screen doors around lately, on Pinterest and at furniture stores, so I thought it would be a blast to make my own!
Well, it sat in my craft room for months because I just could not get in my head what I wanted to do exactly. If I have inspiration for a project, I can get it done fast and I dont have any problems started. However, if I can't find that inspiration or know exactly what I want, it can take me forever to get going!
I finally decided what I wanted to do and got started this weekend. I was able to get a lot done but I needed my husbands help holding things up and screwing the shelf, etc. This was our brief conversation:
after going to the store and getting supplies,
Me: "Can you help me screw the shelf onto the door? I have it marked and ready to go"
Jeff: sitting on the couch playing on his iPad watching some graphic movie, "now??!"
Me: "That would be nice, yes."
Jeff: "you know you dont have to finish a project in 3 hours. You can take your time."

No! I am so impatient! When I want to get something done, I want it done NOW! lol The absolute worst is when something happens during the DIY process, like running out of supplies or something breaks, and I can't do anything until that step is completed but it is either too late to go to the store or it is closed. WORST FEELING EVER!

Anyways, so back to the door. I decided to put a handle back on it. I wanted to put hinges too but I couldnt find any I liked so that didnt happen.

I also added a shelf. I had some scrap wood from our playroom shelves so I had Jeff cut it the length I needed and just stained it and screwed it on from the back.

I then got glass cut to fit the large openings in the door. The top one I used the mirror spray paint I mentioned here and the bottom I added a decal that says "There's no place like home." That decal took 2 tries... oops! The first one I added before putting the glass on the door and then realized I didnt account for the corners so the decal was covered. The second one I cut up and added each word individually. If you think wall decals are hard enough, try getting 6 pieces to line up with each other without being able to mark the material it is going on to! (not to mention 2 toddlers insistent that they need to help).

I then added 2 decorative corner brackets to act as feet to the front. This gives it some stability from falling forward.

Since it is fragile it was a MUST that I attach it to the wall. I can't risk one of the girls bumping it and it falling. That would be BAD!

All in all, it turned out really nice and just like I had pictured (which is really rare! lol)

Breakfast Nook Remodel

I am so mad because I can not find my before pictures ANYWHERE!! I know I took some when I decided to take this project on but the only thing I can imagine is that they are on my old phone which is no where to be found (my kids love playing with our old phones so naturally it is MIA). I was able to find this photo from when I was selling our old table. It at least gives you the idea of how boring this corner was.

No window treatments, a tiny table that only sat 2 people, TV trays used for extra table space (BOO!), a not so pretty chandelier. I at least had something hanging on the wall, which I have not found anything to replace with yet, but overall it needed help.
When this all began I wanted to get a larger table for our growing family but I did not want to spend a fortune (surprise surprise). I knew that this table was going to get a lot of use and damage since Avery was starting to get into crafts. We have a craft room that I can trust her in but I really like to keep my eye on her so this would really be the best place. I started looking on Craigslist and found a table that I liked but needed some immediate TLC. Long story short, the lady fell through on me and sold the table to someone else just hours before I was supposed to meet her! Some people really annoy me! It was all for the best, though, because I kept shopping and was able to find an even better table for less $ and it needs some work but nothing major right away. I found it on the same local site that I found my new office chair. The lady selling it wanted the same amount of money that I had sold the small table for so I broke even!! I was over the moon!!! Here is the table after we got it home.

It’s a little old school but I LOVE the legs on the table and the little details like the knobs on the corners of the table. I also love the little metal piece that covers the screws at the base of the legs. There are 2 leaves that are each another 12” and when you open the table to add them, the gears are awesome! I would love to know where this table originally came from and when it was made. I doubt it is really that old but I think it was well constructed! I was not in love with the chairs but I thought they could be painted and be really cute. Like I have said, wood furniture with good bones can always be refinished!! As you can see, there’s already puzzles and crafts on the table; did not take long! lol

I decided to pain the chairs white to give the set the two tone look that is popular these days. That was a horrible mess!!!! I did a lot of research on painting wood furniture and found that you could get spray primer called “cover stain.”

It was supposed to work great so you didn’t have to strip and sand the furniture first. That was a MESS!! I do not recommend this stuff at all!! it came out chalky and bumpy and did not go on smoothly at all! I ended up having to sand anyways but then I was sanding the primer on top of everything else. I have read and heard a lot about chalk paint by Annie Sloan so I think that will have to be the way I go next time. After about a week of getting the chairs painted, I was basically forced to distress the chairs since the painting was such a disaster. All in all I think it turned out ok to have them distressed. I have lots of other distressed pieces in our house so it wasn’t out of place. Here are the after pictures now that it is all done (about 6 months later!!!)

Here is the new chandelier that I found for only $20!! There is a place in Houston where Habitat for Humanity takes all of their left over items and sells them for dirt cheap. I found this among the pile of light fixtures and thought it would look so cute with the table. I realize it is intended to be an exterior light, but who cares, I like it. It was missing a piece of glass but lucky I have glass cutting tools (what? you don’t? lol) so I just found a piece that matched at Hobby Lobby, used one of the good pieces as a stencil and Voilà! it was fixed. Next was an all day endeavor by my husband to get it hung since he had to rewire the whole thing. I told him we could just scratch the whole idea since it was only $20 but it became a manly pride thing that he knew he could do it! lol After he got it hung I was kind of disappointed. I like the look of it but it only holds 40w light bulbs so it doesn’t light up the space well enough. Jeff put so much effort into getting it hung that I think it is staying lol.

I found some green seat cusions at Pier 1 that I loved but they are about $30 a piece I believe and once again, I knew that they were going to be spilled on and food smashed into them, so spending $120 on seat cushions was not ideal. Luckily I found some at Home Goods that were the exact same color (just not as frilly) for $20 for all 4!!! I think I get a high from a good deal haha.

Here is a close up of the table leg with the little metal piece I talked about. love! You can see some of the wear and tear on it; one day I will refinish it!

These little yellow pots are from this post. This set of plants is the third round of plants. I do not have a green thumb, despite my best efforts

Here are the curtains I made. I found the fabric online and I love the colors. You cant tell in the pictures but it almost has a sheen to it and the green seat cushions go perfectly!

This is my least favorite spot. I had these hanging before and I still don’t love it. The watercolor pear painting is something that I made in college and is one of the only pieces from that art class that I like so I want to keep it hung but I really want to find a large painting or art piece for this wall. I am going to The Woodlands Art Festival in April so I will be keeping my eyes open!

Case In Point

This is why we do not buy expensive furniture with kids. Luckily it is just chalk and wipes right off but it could have (and has been) worse!

Guilty toddler in the background.

New Office Chair

I know I said that I was not in a hurry to find a chair for our office/playroom…. well I lied. Just kidding. I was telling the truth when I wrote that but I came across a steal that I couldn’t pass up shortly after I wrote that post.
See, you know how there’s online classified websites like Craigslist? Well, there is one for my little community and it is terribly addicting! I don’t normally buy something used unless it is a real gem and a steal (oh and I have a rule that it can’t be upholstered either. Never know what is growing in that fabric! eeeek!!) ha! Furniture with good bones can always be refinished! I was on that website just browsing around and I found an antique office chair for sale for only $50!! I had my eye on one of a similar style from Restoration Hardware:

Or Potterybarn:

but there was no way I was going to spend that kind of money on a chair that will probably get blueberries squished on it and juice spilled on it!

Here is the one that I found. I love it but it needs a little TLC and a seat cushion. I will have to wait till I am no longer pregnant to refinish it but I can add the cushion to my list of projects to do pre-baby 3. It works great in here and I think it looks great with the trundle bed!

My Little Yellow Table

This is another piece of furniture I got out of Jeff’s grandma’s house recently. It is currently being used as an end table in the guest room and needed some TLC. It needed to be sanded down and either restained or painted. Since I have always wanted to do some stenciling on furniture, I thought this would be a great piece to try it out on. Let’s just say, that I had a few “oops” with this project (I seem to have lots of those lol) but I think it turned out ok in the end. Here it is as I got it:

I sanded it down and spray painted the whole thing a soft yellow. The same color as these pots.

Ok, so here was the fun part! I laid out a stencil that I found a the craft store and taped it down, got out some white paint and a roller and went to town. I thought it worked great until I pulled the stencil up and realized that the white paint bled all under the stencil so it looked HORRIBLE!! I was not happy! Since I had used spray paint it’s not like I could just go touch up the smears. ugh!!!!!

 

Turns out you should read the instructions first! ha! I should have sprayed the whole back of the stencil with repositionable spray adhesive first to make sure every square centimeter is tightly up against the surface. Now, I know for next time I stencil a table! ha

After I cooled down and the paint dried I dug through my cabinets and realized I had a quart of yellow paint I had used several weeks ago on some other stuff. It matched pretty darn closely and you couldn’t even tell where I touched up from the original spray!! SCORE!!!

It took about 2 hours of tedious work and I was about cross eyed by the end, but I was able to get the lines all straight.

Thanks to Home Goods, I was able to do this whole project with accessories for just about 50 bucks! Works for me!! I think the yellow looks great next to the soft grey/purple walls, and the ash wood lamp with linen shade and textured frame with baby picture complete the set!